“We overestimate what we can accomplish in a day, and underestimate what we can accomplish in a year.” – Tony Robbins, I am not your Guru

If we consistently try to fit too much into a day in order to be “productive”, we are likely to burn out. It may not be today, tomorrow or next month, but it’s inevitable. I know from experience.

Trying to do less each day and thinking about what can be accomplished in a year, might allow us to be more productive. Working to do everything in one day is failing to plan. It is short term thinking. It is the curse of the Type A personality.

Accomplishing less in a day allows time for rest and reflection. Both of which are essential to being productive.

One reason we do not think in terms of a year is that it is difficult. It means planning and prioritizing. It means maintaining consistency and motivation.

One way to view success is in accomplishing long term goals.

To accomplish long term goals, we can think of the long term goal and work backwards. Consistently taking small, actionable steps.

We do this in planning our business, so why not with other goals.

For example:

If I know my sales revenue needs to be $900,000 a year to make quota, I can work backwards to know exactly what I need to do daily to achieve that number.

Let’s break it down further.

$900,000 a year is $225,000 a quarter and $75,000 a month. The next step is to ask what specific activities, if done daily, will produce the desired sales revenue.

This means how many calls, meetings and product trials I need in order to make that number.

The same can be done for our personal goals. Developing a daily process, distributed sustainably, can provide adequate planning to successfully reach our goals. Sustainable activities performed consistently can help avoid burnout.